Magnum Opus
by An abundance of squids
Summary: Not everyone is born evil. But what some people forget that even the most innocent of intentions can lead down a road of ruin. And while some projects were never innocent to start off with, they never intended to go down the way they did... short story involving science, mew and how it all started


_Darkness._

 _That all it knew._

 _Maybe at another time, it knew something else, but for now, all it knew was darkness._

 _But it was not unaware. Far from it._

 _Not that it was better than remaining asleep._

 _For the consciousness brought only one thing._

 _Pain._

 _Pain consumed its entire being as its body was warped, as bones and sinew and nerves grew, as its mind was formed and slowly, piece by piece, its new mind learnt._

 _Knowledge and instincts that it would never use filled its mind, the pantheon of voices crying their cries, before fading back into oblivion._

 _But above it all, one voice remained._

 _It did not belong to one species, but it existed only as a command, a twisted, distorted echo of a primal call that once ran though the mind of its ancestors._

 _The will to fight._

— — —

"it's in pain." I put my head against the glass of the tank, its coolness distracting me from the agony I had just witnessed. "I can feel it. Every thought it has is a desperate cry of mercy form this torture."

"you can already feel it? But it's no more than..." The man paused, looking at the foetus-like form in the tank before us.

"no more than an infant?"

"no...I just didn't think that it would be conscious, let alone complex enough to feel..."

"it can feel. It can feel everything you're doing to it."

"can...can it hear us?"

"not yet. Its senses are too weak for that. And even then..." I sighed. "it wouldn't be able to understand." I looked at the floating form in pity.

"I don't like this victor..." he sighed and put a hand on me.

"I don't either. But..." His eyes drifted to the other tank, containing nothing but a soft, otherworldly glow.

"...it's the only way." I said, finishing his sentence.

Silence.

— — —

 _Suddenly, something broke the silence. A voice sliced it, making it momentarily forget its pain and its agony. A girl's voice, although it didn't know enough about the world to tell that._

 _"hello?"_

 _He tried to say something in reply, but he couldn't. the silence was too thick and its new mind was still slow and foreign to it._

 _"don't." he finally whispered. But his voice was unheeded over the turbulence of pain that surrounded its entire being. "don't go.…"_

— — —

I suddenly looked up from the tank in surprise. I'd heard it. No, I'd heard _him_.

I was not the only one who noticed.

While my human companion would've been too weak to heard the faint psychic cry, he had other ways. He was suddenly at the computer that was one of many scattered around the room.

"what…what happened? It just spiked and then…." he rushed over to another monitor. "that can't be right…it couldn't have done that…it's not…" he suddenly stopped, confusion giving away to relief.

There was another moment of silence. I couldn't help but hold my breath as the man reached his conclusion. When he finally turned to me, there were tears in his eyes.

"it worked. It worked mew. It worked."

"he's conscious. I know.…"

" _both_ of them are conscious."

"you mean…."

"yes! She's back! And so are the others!" he animatedly waved his hands around, indicating the entire lab. "it worked! We actually did it!" he grabbed me in an embrace tight enough to almost choke me.

But I did not share his happiness.

This meant something else as well….

"they'll come." I whispered. "they'll come and take him away and…and.…" I couldn't bear to think of what team rocket would do to the clone.

"mew." he brought himself out of the hug. "no matter what we did they'd come. This pains this me as much as it does you. Do you think I want to see it, my magnum opus ripped away from my hands like this? I could become so much with the progress I've made on you, let alone what I've done here. I've made more advancements in genetics than humankind has made in fifty years. I don't want to have it all taken from me, to be forced to keep silent about all I have done. But…" he sighed. "it's the only way."

I nodded sadly. Money was a fickle thing for any project and this was no different. It had been my fault really, for letting myself getting to attached to the experiment. And now I would have to pay the price of my actions.

Slowly, the door creaked open and a man walked in.

"victor? Mew? Its time." We turned to face the newcomer.

"I don't want to go. I can't leave him here. They'll get him." I whispered, my voice solid from a thousand years of solitude. But even that composure was wavering.

"there's no other choice. They'll find you."

"but…but.…"I struggled to keep the tears back. "they'll torture it. Its conscious. And intelligent. I know it. It said something…." both men turned to me in surprise. "It- _he_ said…don't go."

"it doesn't know what they will bring upon it mew. If you leave now, and never be a part of its life, it'll never blame you for what you didn't do. Please mew. Nothing we can do can save it from the horrors team rocket will inflict upon it. But we can do something to save you. We can do something to stop them from getting you. And maybe, maybe he'll escape from them. I've already condemned one Pokémon to a death by them. I don't want to condemn another."

I nodded, accepting my fate.

I turned to the scientist beside me,

"please, please look after him. Look after him as if he was your own daughter. Even if...even if she doesn't make it. Be what I can't be to it. And don't…." I paused to compose myself. "don't let him fall into their hands. At least try." I could feel the tears start to well up in my eyes.

"it's male?"

"he is."

"I will. I promise mew."

By now, I could feel the tears rolling down my face as I wordlessly embraced him.

I didn't want to leave. But I knew I had to. For everyone's sake.

As I moved towards the door, I took one final look backwards, at the scientist and the sleeping clone beside him.

That was the last time I ever saw Victor Ulysses Fuji. He died a year later on the sixth of February.

Killed by my own son.

And he never forgave me for what I didn't do.


End file.
